West News Wire: After severe weather hit the East Coast on Tuesday morning, killing at least two people, nearly 500,000 customers in the US were still without power.
According to information gathered by PowerOutage.us, there were 439,431 recorded outages across the US as of 5:41 a.m. ET, primarily in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, and Tennessee. Due to the storms, that number peaked at 1 million on Monday night.
On Monday, there were more than 600 reports of destructive storms across the country, ranging from Georgia to New York state. The National Weather Service also recorded damaging storms and a tornado in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska.
At least two fatalities on Monday were attributed to the inclement weather, including a 28-year-old male who was struck by lightning in Florence, Alabama, and a 15-year-old who was hit by a falling tree in Anderson, South Carolina, according to local authorities.
After pummeling America’s heartland over the weekend, the storms brought torrential rain, destructive winds, massive hail and loud thunder to the eastern part of the country on Monday afternoon and evening. Straight-line winds gusted to 71 miles per hour in Georgia and 63 mph in Maryland, where power lines and trees came crashing down. Grapefruit-sized hail was reported in Virginia.
On a busy highway in Westminster, Maryland, collapsed power poles trapped 34 vehicles, including 33 adults, 14 children, and a companion dog. According to state authorities, it took several hours for them to be rescued, although there were no known injuries.
Meanwhile, major airports in places including Atlanta, New York, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Boston were affected by the cancellation or delay of thousands of flights.
Since then, the majority of the severe weather has moved away from the East Coast, but according to the most recent forecast, a persistent storm system in New England may still produce sporadic severe thunderstorms with strong winds or perhaps a sporadic tornado. A flood watch is still in effect for much of New England through Tuesday night because flash flooding might be caused by heavy rain.
The main threat of severe weather shifts to the Great Plains on Tuesday, particularly Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas, where an isolated tornado and huge hail is possible. Other areas under threat on Tuesday will be from Mississippi to Georgia, where damaging winds will be possible, according to the latest forecast.
The stormy weather will continue into Wednesday and over the weekend with plenty of rain in the forecast. Areas from the Midwest to the Deep South could see localized flooding.
